


flowers in your hair

by laehys



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pride and Prejudice Fusion, Feelings, Lee Jeno is Whipped, M/M, nohyuck are in love and thats the entire fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 10:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30104283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laehys/pseuds/laehys
Summary: As soft as a flower petal,Jeno dazedly thinks, feeling his own mouth tingle like crazy after Donghyuck pulls back.And just as beautiful as one too.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	flowers in your hair

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lilacsuns (Milival)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milival/gifts).



> hello!!! today is val special day so !!!! can't let this day pass without anything happening!!!
> 
> hi val <3 plz accept this small fic as an offering of my love for u <3 u are such an amazing person and such a great influence in the life of everyone you meet and being able to be your friend and stand by your side is one of the greatest things!!! <33 i only hope for your happiness and safety and hope u can achieve all of ur dreams!!!! <333
> 
> this was supposed to be a p&p au but,,,,uhhh,,,let's just pretend it worked okay hehe

The sun is setting and painting everything golden. Soon enough they'll have to go back to their houses — should have gone already, to be more clear; Jeno remembers his mother nagging him on about getting back home so he could take care of the cattle and make sure the well had been restored to their standards. _I don't understand those things, darling_ , she had said, ignoring the fact that Jeno also didn't know anything about wells and how good they're supposed to look, the upkeeping of their house always being a task for his father and older brothers. _Take a look for me, won't you?_ And Jeno had agreed because it was easier to say ' _Yes_ ' than to argue with her, even if it was to do something against his wishes.

Because as much as he didn't want to check if the well was okay and had been fixed, as much as he didn't want to wander around their land and gather the cattle, he also didn't want to stay inside the house and waste time doing nothing — time that he could spend next to him. Next to Donghyuck.

So Jeno agrees and accepts all the duties, being careful to find loops and empty moments to flee for a second or two when no one is paying attention to him.

Their meetings are built over stolen time, over hurried steps and hushed voices, hands clasped together as they run fast, the wet grass tinting their socks and the ends of their slacks, finding solace underneath the shade of one of the many trees. The golden rays of the sun pass through the leaves creating different shapes and shadows on Donghyuck's face, kissing his skin in a way that Jeno wishes he could copy.

"When do you need to go back?" Donghyuck asks, brows furrowing slightly because of the sun hitting him directly on the face. His dark eyes are now lighter and Jeno thinks he could drown in his gaze. "Do you want to spend the night back at my place? I can ask the cook to make your favorite dish and I can send someone to warn your family you won't be coming back until tomorrow morning."

It'd be easy to accept Donghyuck's offer — in a way, Jeno _wants_ to accept it very badly, it wouldn't be the first time after all. But that's the problem: it wouldn't be the first time. Nor the second or the third.

How many more times could they say that Jeno was just fixing something in Donghyuck's manor? That Jeno had mistaken how long his walk would've been and Donghyuck had invited him over for dinner, the hours mixing together until it was too late for Jeno to walk back home and he needed to stay behind? How many more people would stumble upon them sitting down under a tree, blanket spread around them while they chatted and laughed together, blue skies as the witness of the feeling that blossomed in between them.

People talked — and people _especially_ liked to talk when it involved a rich bachelor like Donghyuck and his friendship with Jeno, a normal guy from the countryside. Not only were they in different social circles, but their close association had happened almost out of nowhere: Donghyuck came back to his old parent's manor, the heir checking up on his estates, and he'd met Jeno who'd only recently had become the man of the house with the passing of his father and the leaving of his older brothers, each one of them starting their own families.

And, from what seemed in the blink of an eye, Jeno was hanging out together with Donghyuck.

Donghyuck would go into the city and come back barring gifts for Jeno, carriages full of things that made Jeno scratch the side of his neck and try to accommodate in his home, avoiding his mother's inquiring eyes. Jeno would wake up early in the morning, before the sun had even risen, and start to work hard, trying to finish all his tasks as quickly as possible so he could go for an evening walk side by side with Donghyuck, pointing flowers and plants for him, naming them in a way only someone who'd grown up around them could do.

And, in the end, Jeno would tuck a pink flower behind Donghyuck's ear, fingers caressing the side of his face gently, hand dropping almost in slow motion back to the side of his body. Donghyuck would look up through his eyelashes, his eyes so heavy, so full of longing, that it stirred something in Jeno's gut, Donghyuck's cheeks blossoming pink just like the flower behind his ear, his tongue poking out between his lips to lick over them quickly, swallowing heavily after.

Donghyuck was beautiful. So, so beautiful that it took Jeno's breath away every time and made him wonder how he could've been so lucky to be able to stay by his side, that made him wonder what Donghyuck even saw in him to keep him company and seek his presence every single day. He still doesn't know for sure what it must be that Donghyuck sees in him, but Jeno finds that he can't complain when he gets to hear Donghyuck talk and ramble about whatever he wants, when he gets to watch Donghyuck's eyes shine bright, lips forming a wide smile like it always does before he quickly looks at both sides and crosses the distance in between them to press their lips together.

 _As soft as a flower petal_ , Jeno dazedly thinks, feeling his own mouth tingle like crazy after Donghyuck pulls back. _And just as beautiful as one too._

It's easy to fall into Donghyuck's arms and forget about the rest of the world, but Jeno's shoulders are heavy with the weight of the responsibility he carries, so he always creates a limit a makes sure to not step over it. He pulls back from a kiss when the skies are darkening, when the chill breeze starts to sneak under their clothes, declining Donghyuck's invitations with a sad look, lips downturned.

"Mother waits for me at home," Jeno repeats, almost every single day. "I must go back soon."

Donghyuck doesn't understand it completely because he grew up in another kind of life, but he nods and lets his hands slide away from Jeno, the twitch on his nose the only indicative of how he feels. Jeno would like to not have to think about his family and, for a few seconds, he feels even angry with his brothers — now that they're all gone it has fallen to him the responsibility of keeping it all together when it had never been his job at all.

But life wasn't fair and that Jeno had learned at an early age, so he only goes with the flow of life and tries to make the best of it. He leaves Donghyuck behind because he must go back home, but when he arrives at his place he ignores his mother's curious eyes and pursed lips, turning instead to greet his younger siblings and hear their stories, another day coming to an end. The well looks good and the cattle are safe, a few stray cats sleeping on their front porch.

The days look almost the same, with few changes in between — or at least that's how it had always been before. The flowers look somehow brighter now, and Jeno looks hard at them, trying to decide if they'd look good against Donghyuck's hair or in a bouquet on his desk. The moon shines brighter and walks a faster path across the sky, a new day that'll let Jeno meet Donghyuck again arriving quicker.

There's a hummingbird trapped inside his chest and it tries to fly away every time he thinks of Donghyuck or is close to him, and when Jeno tells Donghyuck that, his hands trembling slightly and sweat beading at his forehead, Donghyuck only smiles and tilts his head to the side.

Jeno's never been too good with words, he says that to Donghyuck, he's never been the type to use them as his weapon or to read pretty words in a book, learning a hundred different ways to explain how he feels. Donghyuck's the one between them with a library bigger than Jeno's entire home, the one who likes to spend his free time with a book as company and creating his own way of placing words together too. So, even though words are sometimes hard and Jeno struggles with them, he tries his best to use them to describe how he feels, tries to make them all pretty and enchanting — just how Donghyuck was, how Donghyuck made him feel too.

And maybe they're a bit messy, a bit weird, but Donghyuck only nods and accepts it all, his mouth forming a soft smile that grows more and more. He eases Jeno's worries and says anything he says is good, that he doesn't need to pretend to be something he isn't, that he doesn't need to force anything, but that he appreciates it all nonetheless.

But Donghyuck deserves to hear only the prettiest of things — Jeno is certain of that, so he keeps trying to find only the best ones to gift Donghyuck.

People talk because Jeno is Donghyuck's partner in a ball, he's the one that was invited instead of the pretty girl that lives in the manor next to him or the daughter of the Captain that owns the butcher shop. People talk because they dance too close together and are still single.

 _He has all that money and so many girls want to wed him_ , they talk about Donghyuck, foreheads scrunched up as they stare hard at his figure, almost as if they'd be able to read him if they kept looking. _He should follow his brothers' example and marry a nice girl to help his family_ , they talk about Jeno, _it's more than time for him to have children_ _already._

But there were the people who didn't see any of that. _They're just very good friends_ , they'd said, _see how real friendship happens even if you both are from different places? Mr. Lee is a very nice man!_

Balls are something that Jeno isn't very used to and Donghyuck is more than bored of them, so they sneak away from every single one they manage to find themselves in. Those are the moments Jeno doesn't need to go back home early, when the entire town stops for the party and there are no chores in the next morning because everyone will be sleeping in, so Donghyuck and Jeno make use of that free time and sometimes they spend the night talking in Donghyuck's place. Sometimes they take walks next to the lake, the moonlight as their lighting and guide. The sound of the party sometimes is carried away for miles and miles, but Jeno can't hear a thing when Donghyuck's voice is calling him.

Routine soon restarts as the birds fly over in the sky and the butterflies go after the blooming flowers. But it's okay. Jeno works hard because that's what he needs to do for now, at least — he works until his body aches and begs for a break, he teaches his younger brothers just like he was taught a long time ago, holding their hands around the tools they'll soon become familiar with. His hours of intense labor and exhaustion vanish as soon as he catches a look at Donghyuck's silhouette on the horizon, the sunset making a glowy edge around his frame.

Jeno immediately smiles, swiping a hand over his face and forehead, trying to clean up as quickly as he could before Donghyuck could get close, but every time it's the same thing: Donghyuck pulls a clean handkerchief from inside his clothes and pats Jeno's face clean while cooing as one would do with a kid. Jeno pretends he doesn't like the attention and makes a face, but Donghyuck quickly makes him drop his pretense after he looks at both sides and holds Jeno's face in between his hands, pecking him on the lips and laughing against his mouth.

"You're all messy," Donghyuck says, pocketing the handkerchief and holding Jeno's hand in between his. "What would you even do without me here?"

Jeno doesn't know. The days would be gloomier and his life would be missing a spark that appeared with Donghyuck's presence. Life, maybe, could be easier if he followed whatever path his mother wanted for him, but Jeno knew that he couldn't be satisfied, couldn't find the happiness and the sense of completeness if he didn't follow his heart and what his soul asked for.

So he chuckles at Donghyuck and shrugs as nonchalantly as he can, the hummingbird still in his chest and just growing stronger as he squeezes Donghyuck's hand and tugs him in the direction of the empty field around them, flowers blossoming underneath their steps as Jeno's house becomes a minuscule dot until it disappears from view.

**Author's Note:**

> [ [twt](https://twitter.com/pinkhrj) | [ccat](https://curiouscat.me/rensungie) ]


End file.
